Today we sit down for a chat with Oliver
Gourdine from author Bettye Griffin’s Eighty-Eight, Mississippi series.
What was your life like before your
author started pulling your strings?
I was, and still am, just a humble country lawyer
from the quiet town of Eighty-Eight, Mississippi.
What’s the one trait you like most
about yourself?
My sense of fair play and adherence to the law. I
really should have been a judge. You should have seen me in action when local
resident Courtney Mathis and outsider Jordan Thomas got into a nasty custody
fight in Since I Fell For You. That
situation was stickier than molasses, but I handled it. And I couldn’t be more
pleased with how things turned out.
What is the strangest thing your author
has had you do or had happen to you?
In Weekend in
Eighty-Eight she had lifelong Eighty-Eight resident Simone Degree come into
my office and demand to know the identity of her biological mother. Apparently,
my elderly daddy got a little confused one day when he saw her in the park and
started blabbering at her like he was in the past, but came back to the present
just in time to deny he knew anything. That was weird with a capital W. Poor
Simone was desperate to know about her birth parents. As the only attorney in
town, I thought I knew everybody’s secrets…but I sure didn’t know about that one.
Do you argue with your author? If so,
what do you argue about?
I’d like to be the leading man in one of Bettye’s books,
but I’m relegated to secondary character status. I guess romance lovers aren’t
interested in reading about a gray-haired, overweight sixty-three-year-old man
who’s been married for nearly forty years, even if he’s still madly in love
with his wife. But Bettye accommodated me…in a way. Her next book in the series,
as yet untitled, is centered around the fallout from a tell-all novel an
anonymous author wrote that’s clearly based on events in the town, a fictitious
story about a murder…and the murder victim is a small-town lawyer who knows a
lot of secrets. In other words, the mystery is centered around a character
who’s based on Yours Truly. I just wish I knew who wrote it…
What is your greatest fear?
That the residents of Eighty-Eight will learn just
how wealthy I am. I might look like a humble country lawyer, but I’m really
loaded, thanks to my investments.
What makes you happy?
Money, of course. And power. As the only attorney in
town, I’ve got the scoop on everybody…and they know it. Plus (and I should
caution that these answers aren’t in order of importance), I love my wife, my
son, and my grandchildren. I just wish my son and his family lived closer.
If you could rewrite a part of your
story, what would it be? Why?
That’s just it. I don’t get a story. I’m just a secondary character, a piece of the glue
that holds this series together. Nobody wants to read about my love story with
my wife, Gloria, which happened forty years and a hundred pounds ago (we’ve
each put on some weight over the years and are no longer the svelte young
couple we once were).
But I’m proud to have played a role in a couple of
local romances, like that between schoolteacher Cornell Sebastian from DeSoto
County and local kitchen designer Ajay Vincent in It Happened in Eighty-Eight. I handled the estate of Cornell’s
great-uncle, who left her his house. She met Ajay when she decided to update
the kitchen in preparation for selling it. That girl looked a little lost when
I first met her, but I’m happy to say that she seems to have found her footing…and
a happily-ever-after to boot.
Of the other characters in your book,
which one bugs you the most? Why?
It’s a tie: Senator Philip Reavis, because he’s a
hypocrite…acts like a white supremacist to get votes when he’s known all along that
his mama was of mixed race; and Leticia Sterling, because she’s a liar. That girl
damn near ruined Ajay Vincent’s life and got him branded as a sex offender.
Neither is the behavior of a good Christian.
Of the other characters in your book,
which one would you love to trade places with? Why?
I’ve had such a good time, I’d love to be young again
and do it over. Some of the folks who’ve fallen in love here in Eighty-Eight
are in their 50s, like Simone Degree and that Yankee from Illinois whose
grandfather was born and died here in Eighty-Eight…but others are younger, like
Cornell and Ajay and the latest romance to blossom, between Shayla Sterling and
that fabulous blues singer from Memphis, Luke Willis in Dream Come True. Gloria and I really dig his music. So why I
wouldn’t really want to trade with anyone, I’d love to repeat my life. Law
school, courting Gloria, raising our son, watching the so-called “new Mississippi” rise after the Civil
Rights Movement…the whole nine yards. It’s truly been a wonderful life.
Tell us a little something about your
author. Where can readers find her website/blog?
Ah, Bettye. She works real hard to bring her readers
interesting stories with unforgettable characters. She really should be better
known than she is, but, as another memorable character (Hyman Roth from The Godfather, Part II) once said, [puffs
out chest and lowers chin] “This is
the business we’ve chosen.” Not that
there are any gangsters here, but the concept fits. Every actor isn’t going to
be Al Pacino; every actress won’t be Meryl Streep.
Here’s some good news: Bettye has lowered the price
of the first book in the Eighty-Eight series, It Happened in Eighty-Eight, to just $1.49, through December 12th. You
can learn more about Bettye at her website.
What’s next for you?
Now that the gym I opened in partnership with a young
fitness expert is open, Gloria and I are trying to lose weight. Gloria is my
assistant, and she also handles the real estate transactions in town. Eighty-Eight
has declared itself the healthiest city in Mississippi, and it doesn’t look
good for its leading citizens to be carrying around an extra seventy-five pounds,
but what can I say? I love me some fried bananas and sweet tea, and Gloria
makes a mean fried chicken and biscuits.
Oh, and I’ve got to smooth some ruffled feathers. The
whole town’s in an uproar over a new novel that was clearly inspired by events
in the lives of our residents. I hear that even Senator Philip Reavis, who was
born here in Bolivar County, is hot under the collar that a local rumor about
his mama has now spread all over the country. Some old scandals have been
brought back to life, plus some new secrets have been uncovered, and a lot of
folks aren’t happy about it. The problem is, the book was written under a
pseudonym, and nobody knows who wrote it. I feel sorry for the author if their
identity is revealed. But Christmas is coming…it looks like forgiveness is the
order of the day. (Note: Bettye had hoped to publish a Christmas story about
all the things going on in Eighty-Eight, but her freelance editing services
have been in demand lately, so that book has been postponed until the first quarter of 2019).
It Happened in Eighty-Eight
Eighty-Eight, Mississippi, Book 1
Eighty-Eight,
Mississippi, a town that has more secrets than it has magnolia blossoms...
Schoolteacher Cornell Sebastian returns to the Mississippi town
that had been her salvation after a traumatic experience ten years before when
she was just fifteen. Her uncle has willed his house to her, which she plans to
spruce up and sell. Living on her own for the first time bolsters her
self-confidence, and she begins to think that maybe she can put her nightmare
past behind her…but there’s just one thing she needs to do to accomplish that,
and it’s not something she can do alone…
Kitchen
and bath designer Ajay Vincent is enchanted by the new woman in town when she
hires him to update her kitchen. As he gets to know Cornell, he suspects she
has a troubled past, but his confidence that she will eventually confide in him
turns to frustration as her issues stall their burgeoning relationship. When
Cornell finally does share the details of her past with him, Ajay is left with
a dilemma, for learning her secret makes it all but impossible for him to tell
her his own…
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